Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/386



and disorders ensued on account of this affair, and several times a civil war was on the verge of breaking out.

Salazar astutely attached himself to a certain Rodrigo de Paz, who was a relative of Cortes, and held the office of alguacil mayor. The latter exercised great influence in the country because the partisans of Cortes regarded him as their chief. Sustained by such an one Salazar ordered the arrest of the treasurer and the accountant, and holding them prisoners in their own houses, he began to proceed against their friends and partisans upon whom he inflicted a shameful punishment in public. Again a civil war was imminent and was only avoided, thanks to God and to the sermons of Father Martin de Valencia and some other holy religious men.

As soon as Salazar and Chirino found themselves masters of the government, and the municipal body had taken the oath to them, they began to steal right and left. They arrested and tortured the Indian chiefs to extort their gold and jewels from them. They distributed important repartimientos to all their adherents. Rodrigo de Paz having ventured to make some observations, and having sent some religious men to make them understand that they were ruining and losing the country, they arrested him to free themselves from the importunate censures. This arrest provoked a tumult, and for the third time civil war threatened. In spite of all, they tried him, and a few days later they hanged him after inflicting the most cruel tortures on him. Some time before this, they had already, on I know not what pretext, seized the person of the licenciate Zuazo whom they exiled, together with many of the principal adherents of Cortes, so that nobody could oppose their will, and they might be absolute masters of the government, which, in their hands, was the most disorderly imaginable. About this time Salazar and Chirino spread the report that Cortes had been killed by the Indians, and all those who accompanied him on his expedition to Hibueras as well. The friends of Cortes contradicted this news which so irritated the others that they had public proclamation made to the effect that any one bold enough to say that Cortes still lived should receive one hundred lashes. Salazar showed himself especially violent against Cortes, whom he publicly described as a heretic, a traitor, and an usurper. He added that even were Cortes still living, he would never allow him to return to the country; that he had not come to Mexico as factor, but that he carried a secret order from the king to arrest Cortes, and that he would have done this had the latter not left for Hibueras.

The Spaniards were thus again divided into two parties: the one to which Salazar belonged was composed of the former friends of Velasquez; the other, of those of Cortes. Salazar had all of these latter whom he could catch arrested, and the others took refuge in the forests when the news of their chief's death was spread in Mexico. Salazar and Chirino forced the municipal body to recognise them as governors in Your Majesty's name. To confirm the rumour of the